The present invention relates to an electrical connector. In particular, the present invention relates to a miniature connector used in connecting electronic devices such as personal computers and the like.
Because of component crowding in small space areas in these electronic devices, the USB type connectors employed are quite small and commonly are termed as such or as xe2x80x9cminiaturexe2x80x9d connectors.
As is well known, in a connector plug, which is used to connect to a connector socket mounted on a printed circuit board and the like, a shield case covers the outside of an inner insulated body, which supports a plurality of contact conductors (contacters). The exterior surface of the end part on the connection cord side of this shield case is covered with an external insulated mold.
In this kind of connector plug, each contact conductor is placed in a contact conductor housing hole, which is formed in the inner insulated body. The connection ends of these contact conductors are soldered to the core wires of a connection cord. If the alignment pitch of the contact conductor housing holes and the contact conductors is smaller in keeping with achieving miniaturization, undesirable contacts between of the connection ends of the contact conductors and the core wires can occur.
During the forming of the external insulated mold, a large resin pressure is imposed on the inner insulated body, and due to deformation of the inner insulated body, the likelihood of the aforementioned contacts problem is increased.
For this reason, with the connector plug of the prior art, contact between adjacent connection ends of the contact conductors or between core wires is prevented by completely separating from each other the contact conductor housing holes, formed in the inner insulated body.
However, with recourse to complete separation of the contact conductor housing holes, a certain amount of thickness for the partitioning wall between contact conductor housing holes is necessary. As a result, there is a limit to the amount that the alignment pitch for the contact conductor housing holes and the contact conductors can be reduced and optimum miniaturization made difficult.
The object of the present invention is to provide a miniature connector with a construction that assures, even when the alignment pitch of the contact conductor housing holes and the contact conductors is made very small, contacts between the connection ends of the contact conductors and the core wires that are soldered to these are prevented.
In order to achieve this object, the present invention proposes a miniature connector, the miniature connector having an inner insulated body, which supports a plurality of contact conductors which contact conductors on a companion connector; the inner insulating body being surrounded on the outside by a shield case; and an outer surface of a connection cord side end of the shield case being covered by an external insulated mold, wherein: adjacent contact conductor housing holes, in which connection ends of the contact conductors are placed, have differing depths; a connecting part cover, which is formed in a unitary manner with the inner insulated body, prevents a connection cord core wire, which is soldered onto each of the connection ends, from slipping out of the corresponding contact conductor housing hole.
In the detailed description of the preferred embodiment of the present invention given later, the following features will be explained.
1) A construction, wherein by having alternately different depths for the contact conductor housing holes, the connection cord core wires, which are to be soldered onto the connection ends, are arranged in a zig-zag manner.
2) A construction, wherein wide grooves, which receive non-adjacent core wires of the connection cord, are formed on the surface of the connecting part cover.
3) A construction, wherein a connecting part cover is formed in a unitary manner with a main body part of the inner insulated body via a thin walled hinge.
The above, and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals designate the same elements.